Question of the Month of May, 2000 - Michel Fortin
The following is Michel Fortin's brief answer to a question selected among hundreds if not thousands that he receives each week. For more information on critique consultations, see http://SuccessDoctor.com/booster.htm.
From Linda Caroll at http://www.lindacaroll.com/
"I am assisting in the promotion of a website and I need to find people that share a very specific interest. I am hoping that you may know of groups and publications that would be interested in this story. Artist Mario Magro has been advocating peace through art for 10 years. He has recently unveiled his latest masterpiece via the web. It's the culmination of over 10,000 hours of blood, sweat and tears. Standing 80 inches in height, Magro's masterpiece opens to reveal a time capsule that will be sealed at the end of the year and opened in the year 2150 (the URL is http://www.fromtheyear2000.com/). In promoting this site, we are looking for people that would like to submit a message in the time capsule as a way of recording their personal message of hope to the future. (There is no cost to submit a message.) We are looking for publications and websites that reach this particular audience. Thank you for any help you can offer."
Here are my thoughts. I don't know of any specific sites and maybe some of our subscribers do (this requires some thinking and analysis on my part). But let me be broad for a moment ...
It is only my guess but people that would be interested would be peace seekers, community-minded people, antiterrorist type association members and the like -- examples of the latter are Greenpeace, Amnesty International, etc). The object, as you pointed out, would be to target these people -- by targeting other vehicles that cater to this psychographic specifically.
So, the question here is: Where would this type of audience congregate? What websites do they visit? To which ezines are they subscribed? What discussion lists or newsgroups do they frequent or in which do they participate?
When I help my clients target their audience(s), I tell them to look at it in a form of a bullseye, with three concentric circles. The center being the core market, the middle layer being the industry itself or other related fields, and the outside layer being extended, augmented, unrelated fields.
Here's what it would look like:
The center of the bullseye represents the core. This would naturally be the core of the target market (what they are all about, want, believe in, etc, which in this case is peace). Evidently, your market can therefore be targeted through peace-oriented websites or publications.
(I'm sure you can conduct some queries on search engines for the word "peace" and other related words, such as "no war," "antiterrorism," "peacekeeping," "United Nations," "treaties," "ceasefire," "love," "harmony," "peace accords," etc.)
The second circle, outside the core, represents the second layer. This would mean other websites or publications that cater to peace-oriented individuals or companies -- websites or publications that are not peace-specific but whose audience consists of such people. The question here is, "What other sites fall under the theme of peace? Antiterrorism? Anti-war? Would it be environmentalists? Pro-lifers? The religious?"
(For example, people involved in the recent Seattle and Washington protests, including the "Million Mom March" for gun control, may fall in this category. Other groups like veteran associations, anti-capital punishment lobby groups, church groups and other types of groups of this nature may be interested. In short, other sites whose message may not necessarily revolve around peace but whose audience fit that particular psychographic characteristic are good.)
The third layer is the outside layer of the bullseye -- to go beyond the inner circles (as in thinking "outside the box"). This third layer represents places that are not industry-specific, product-specific or topic-specific at all (in other words, beyond the peace-specific [the center of the bullseye] or the peace-related [the second layer]) but whose audience logically falls into your target market.
Being the outside circle, this would mean to analyze your target audience, and then to clearly define all of the other common qualities and characteristics that this particular demographic possesses -- and subsequently to target websites and so on catering to people with such characteristics.
In other words, peace-seeking people or organizations are … What? What age are they? What else do they have in common? In what jobs do they work? Where are they located geographically? Are they married? With children? How many? Are they religious and heavily involved in their communities or parishes? What other types of publications do they read? What hobbies do they have? What similar interests do they possess?
For example, and this is only a wild guess, if you find that the larger part of your market consisting of such peace seeking types -- by the way, we should all be peace seekers :) -- are probably generation Y'ers into New Age music who love the outdoors, then there are websites that cater to generation Y'ers, to New Age music and to the outdoors (e.g., camping, mountain climbing, etc) -- individually.
Ultimately, it means that as long as the audiences of such sites and publications logically fit into your target market, even if they have nothing to do with peace at all, then you've got it made. You're still within your bullseye in other words.
Anyway, I hope this helps.
Michel Fortin
The Success Doctor
About the Author
Michel Fortin is an author, speaker and Internet marketing consultant dedicated to turning businesses into powerful magnets. Visit http://SuccessDoctor.com. He is also the editor of the "Internet Marketing Chronicles" ezine delivered weekly to 100,000 subscribers -- subscribe free at http://SuccessDoctor.com/IMC/.
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